The Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone reached five cooperation agreements on Sept 14 with several investors, with the total investment deals worth up to 16 billion yuan ($2.6 billion).

The investment programs range from tourism, and logistics, to high technology, which will well prepare Pingtan for its future development, commented the Pingtan Times.

Under the agreements, Chuanpu, a Xiamen-based company engaged in the manufacture of precision electronic products, will start a base of electronic components in Pingtan with an investment of 600 million yuan.

The company decided to settle in Pingtan because of its bright prospects for development as well as a number of favorable policies for enterprises there, according to Qiu Xiaohua, the company’s representative at the signing.

“We will set up a team to push forward the implementation of the project. We plan to start building the base by the end of this year and become operational next June,” he said.

Pingtan’s tourism market potential also appealed to the Zhongfu Haixia (Pingtan) Development Co and the China Comfort Travel Group Co, who agreed to jointly invest 2 billion yuan on an array of tourism projects, such as a stone folk dwelling transformation, farmhouse accommodation, camp destination for drivers, commercial zones, tourism and leisure resort, and hotels, in Pingtan.

In a similar pact, the Guowei Fortune Investment Holding Co decided to spend 10 billion yuan on tourism programs in Pingtan. The package contained the construction of a seven-star hotel, several five-star hotels, commercial streets, a plaza for performances, an international yacht club and a park with touches of ecological sports.

The Linca Industrial (Fujian) Group Co is bullish about Pingtan’s future as a cross-Straits logistics hub, and is willing to invest 2 billion yuan building a modern logistics platform, a logistics warehouse and distribution center in Jinjing Bay District.

The company will spend another 1.5 billion yuan on more warehouses near Jidiao cargo Port, which will go into operation by November.

The signings of the five projects indicate a new wave of investment fever in Pingtan.

Figures show that throughout the first eight months this year, a total of 114 Taiwan-funded companies settled in Pingtan, a 1.8-times increase year on year. The increment is even more than the number of new Taiwan-funded enterprises combined over the previous two years.

As of Sept 14, there are 320 overseas-funded enterprises in Pingtan.

The explosion in the establishment of new enterprises is largely due to the “Pingtan Closure”, a policy approved by central authorities that put the whole of Pingtan under customs supervision and management, with a lot of favorable policies for the enterprises.

Since the implement of the policy in June, Pingtan has inked deals involving more than 40 projects, with an aggregate investment of more than 50 billion yuan. And it is in negotiation with many more, according to Ou Xiaoning, director of the local economic development bureau.